Synchrony Bank’s 2023 ESG Report: Overcoming Challenges in Design and Production with Workiva Platform
In 2023, Synchrony Bank contacted our team and asked if we would be interested in designing and producing their yearly ESG report. Having had experience in designing sustainability reports, I offered to work on the project. We weren't exactly clear on what we were getting into in terms of building the report. Synchrony had been using a platform called Workiva to build and distribute their previous reports. We found out quickly that it was going to be a lot more work than we anticipated.
Workiva is a cloud based platform that houses data used for reporting. Essentially, a content management system for data. How it works is there is a centralized workspace for a client and design team. In this space pages are created and copy is entered manually by multiple people. Projects can vary in size. Synchrony's report was just shy of one hundred pages. Once copy has been dropped, the design team then exports that copy and links it to an InDesign document via an .icml file. Once the design doc is linked to the Workiva doc then .icml files can be pulled and dropped into the design doc and the copy is updated instantly. This is a useful process when you are dealing with a large quantity of copy. However, so many issues arose as the project carried on that we had to address one by one and come up with the best solution possible.
One of the first issues we encountered was the styling of the copy. In Workiva, each project is assigned a style sheet just like HTML and CSS. You start by going through the copy and assigning styles as needed. We very quickly learned that it wasn't going to be as simple as H1, H2, Paragraph, link, etc. Myself and the other designer working on the project made a decision to first design the report in InDesign. Assign styles in InDesign. Then sync it up with the Workiva doc. When working in Workiva, it's just like looking at a huge Word doc with no styled copy. Even when there is a style assigned to a section of copy in Workiva you don't know what it will look like until you import it into Indesign. This proved to be very challenging because all of your text boxes are linked in InDesign for the entire document. So once someone on the client side changes, adds or deletes copy, it completely throws off your entire design in InDesign. We were challenged with finding a work flow that would work for us and the client.
Collaborating Under Pressure: Finding a Workflow Solution for Synchrony Bank's ESG Report
After a lot of back and forth with the client, meetings with Workiva instructors and any content we find online we started to settle into a work flow that was not ideal, but we had to make it work. We weren't allotted a lot of time for this project, so it was pretty much a "all hands on deck" situation for the duration of two months.
Just like with most projects, it took some time to get into a groove and start to see some results. One of the biggest issues was making absolutely sure that we did not alter or change the look of the report copy inside of Workiva. The team of people on the client side were very animate about us not changing anything whatsoever inside the platform as they were responsible for delivering weekly and daily updates of the report to CEOs', VPs' and stakeholders. We finally found a solution that worked for everyone where we would have a "pencils down" section of each day where we could go in the Workiva doc and make updates to the styles and then pull .icml's for our design doc.
So much work went into this report. It was without a doubt the most stressful and complicated project I had every worked on in my career. We worked 10-14 hour days week after week. We got to the point where myself, the other designer and a copy writer would work in tandem via Teams updating and editing the design doc for the last few weeks of the project. It was the first time as remote employees that we really had to work together to find solutions on how to work to achieve the results we needed in a timely manner. By the end of the project we had it down to a science, but it took a long time to get there and there were so many speed bumps along the way. In the end we produced a beautiful report that was praised by the CEO, VP's and so many people within the Synchrony organization. It was a great feeling to finally finish it and not only receive so much praise, but to know what can be accomplished when you work hard and collaborate with great people.